Man who admitted to North Shore killing IDs co-defendant as gunman

Benjamin Schenk, left, has agreed to plead guilty in connection to the killing of Colin Nutter in 2013. Schenk is expected to testify against two alleged accomplices.

Benjamin Schenk, left, has agreed to plead guilty in connection to the killing of Colin Nutter in 2013. Schenk is expected to testify against two alleged accomplices.

(Lake Counry Sheriff's Office, Family photo)

Susan BergerChicago Tribune

When Colin Nutter was shot to death inside his car in 2013, his body dumped near an Edens Expressway ramp in Wilmette, authorities initially pointed to another 20-year-old man from the North Shore, Benjamin Schenk, as the gunman.

But more than two years after the killing, Schenk has agreed to plead guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for testimony identifying a co-defendant — Philip Vatamaniuc — as the one who shot Nutter in the back of the head while rap music blared from the car radio, according to court documents.

As part of the plea deal, Schenk has given a Lake County judge a preview of his testimony against Vatamaniuc and the other person charged in Nutter's killing, Michael Coffee, at their upcoming trials. A transcript of that testimony reveals new details about the allegations, including the randomness with which Schenk said the three young North Shore acquaintances — Vatamaniuc and Coffee, both of Highland Park, were just 17 — allegedly targeted their victim.

"How did the three of you derive at Colin Nutter?" a prosecutor asked Schenk.

"He's the one who picked up the phone," Schenk said.

Schenk explained in detail how he, Vatamaniuc and Coffee had been targeting people to steal drugs from and that he knew Nutter because he'd "bought weed from him a couple of times."

Just the day before, Schenk said, he used the same semiautomatic handgun he got from Coffee to fire a shot into the ground to scare another man Schenk and Coffee were trying to rob. Hours later, Schenk said, he was still carrying the gun when he, Coffee and Vatamaniuc were stopped by police while walking through Highwood. Schenk said he took off running, tossing the weapon into a yard near Oak Terrace Elementary School.

He later went back and retrieved the gun, carrying it in his waistband to his job at Ace Hardware in Highland Park, he said. When Coffee called him asking for the gun back because "he said some (gang members) from the city wanted to kill him, something of that nature," Schenk said he told his boss that his landlady was sick and that he needed to leave. Later that day, June 3, 2013, the trio decided to call Nutter, though Schenk testified that he didn't remember whether he or Coffee placed the call.

"My recollections are pretty hazy. I was doing a lot of drugs," Schenk said.

Schenk, the son of a Army colonel who had moved with his family to Highwood after living in Germany during his high school years, still faces a minimum 20 years in prison for the slaying and could receive as many as 60. But in the plea deal struck last June, prosecutors dismissed aggravating factors that could have extended his term and said they would not charge him with the alleged shooting the night before.

Nutter's father, Michael Nutter, of Highland Park, said he supports the plea deal.

"My family's position is that we want to have the heaviest sentence possible. ... We want them all convicted," he said. "The murder of my son Colin was totally unjustified. He was such a good kid, with many, many friends."

From the witness stand, Schenk, now 23, described how he and his co-defendants talked of stealing Colin Nutter's car so they could drive to the West Side of Chicago.

"I pointed out if you take this vehicle, he's probably going to have something to say about that. They said, 'Well, we could just shoot him and put him in the trunk,'" Schenk said.

Then they discussed who would pull the trigger.

"At first it was going to be me and then Philip (Vatamaniuc) said it was his turn and he took the gun," Schenk said, adding Coffee told Vatamaniuc that he needed to "prove himself" in order to earn acceptance into a street gang.

Schenk then described how the three of them piled into Nutter's car, with Vatamaniuc sitting behind Nutter. Coffee, in the passenger seat, moved the gearshift into park, turned up the radio and screamed, "Do it!" just before "Philip shot Colin Nutter in the head," Schenk said.

The parents of Colin Nutter, who was murdered in Highwood on June 3, 2013, talk about their son and the trial for the three men accused in the crime. Nov. 12, 2013. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

The parents of Colin Nutter, who was murdered in Highwood on June 3, 2013, talk about their son and the trial for the three men accused in the crime. Nov. 12, 2013. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

The next several hours, according to Schenk's testimony, were marked by panic, chaos and a series of blunders that included the three forgetting where they'd hidden the body, abandoning the car in Chicago after a fender-bender and later locking the keys inside another car they stole belonging to Nutter's family.

After Nutter was shot, Schenk said, his two co-defendants "kind of froze," and he ordered Vatamaniuc to help him get the body into the trunk. They then drove to the Highwood home of a woman they knew, where Coffee and Schenk cleaned up the car with bleach and towels, he said. Schenk went home to retrieve shovels "to dig a grave," he said, but the trio ended up dumping the body near some parked car along a frontage road and covering it with grass.

As they then started driving toward Chicago, "Michael (Coffee) told us we were dumb and that we needed to go back and get his wallet. We forgot where we put Colin Nutter, so we drove around for a little bit (before) finally finding where it was," Schenk testified. They took $200 from Nutter's wallet and his driver's license and then threw the wallet out the window before returning to the Highwood home, Schenk said.

Early the next morning, Schenk and Coffee dropped off Vatamaniuc — "He had to get to school or something like that," Schenk testified — and then went to Nutter's house in Highland Park, where Schenk said they used Nutter's key to enter the home and steal a sweatshirt, a bag of marijuana and a bottle of pills. Schenk said Coffee found another set of keys in the house and decided to steal the family car.

A Highwood man who pleaded guilty to the 2013 murder of Highland Park resident Colin Nutter pleaded not guilty Wednesday to aggravated battery to a police officer charges in an alleged attacked on a corrections officer last month in Lake County Jail.

Benjamin Schenk, one of three defendants in...

A Highwood man who pleaded guilty to the 2013 murder of Highland Park resident Colin Nutter pleaded not guilty Wednesday to aggravated battery to a police officer charges in an alleged attacked on a corrections officer last month in Lake County Jail.

Benjamin Schenk, one of three defendants in...

(Jim Newton)

Schenk said he warned Coffee "it was a bad idea" and left in Colin Nutter's Dodge Stratus, but then met up with Coffee a short time later at a nearby church, with Coffee arriving in the Nutters' Ford Focus.

At some point, Vatamaniuc was also picked up, and then the three headed into Chicago with the two cars, Schenk said. While he was driving behind the Focus along Madison Street, he rear-ended the Ford, he said, adding that the Dodge wouldn't start so they abandoned the car.

After that, he said, the trio drove around the city, with Coffee stopping to purchase Chief Keef and French Montana CDs and Schenk and Vatamaniuc buying cocaine, using the money they took from Nutter's wallet.

They then drove back to North Shore, left the Focus in the driveway of their female acquaintance and went home, Schenk said. Later, the woman called him and said he needed to move the car, at which point he said he realized the keys were inside and tried unsuccessfully to break a window with a baseball bat. Schenk said he eventually set out on foot to buy cigarettes and was arrested.

Under questioning, Schenk acknowledged that the weapon investigators believe was used in the killing was found behind his house wrapped in a pair of his boxer shorts. Schenk said he didn't know how the gun got there "but I believe that Michael Coffee and Philip Vatamaniuc went into my house and put it there."

A version of this article appeared in print on March 21, 2016, in the News section of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Witness IDs pal as gunman in Wilmette slaying - Suspect cuts deal, describes robbery, shooting, chaos" —
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